How to use the Random Team Generator
- Type the participants' names one per line, or paste a list copied from a spreadsheet, a class roster or a group chat as is. Comma-separated names work too.
- Choose Number of teams to make exactly that many teams. Choose People per team and the tool works out how many teams you need.
- Click Make teams. The list is shuffled and shown as one card per team. If you need a new draw, click it again to reshuffle.
- If you need team leaders, tick the checkbox. The first person randomly placed on each team is marked as leader. Use Copy results to paste the teams into an email, a chat or a class announcement.
How does the random team generator divide people?
Tooljip first shuffles the whole list at random, then deals people out one at a time, starting with Team 1 and going around in turn. It works just like dealing a deck of cards, so team sizes never differ by more than one person.
| Participants | Setting | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 3 teams | 4, 3 and 3 people |
| 10 | 3 people per team | 4 teams: 3, 3, 2 and 2 people |
| 12 | 4 people per team | 3 teams of 4 |
| 25 | 6 teams | 1 team of 5 + 5 teams of 4 |
If you split 10 people with "3 people per team," you don't get three teams of 3 plus a team of one. Instead, the tool sets the number of teams to 4 and spreads people evenly, so each team gets 2 or 3. That way nobody is left on their own.
How to make random groups fairly
The list is shuffled with a Fisher-Yates shuffle that uses the browser's cryptographic random number generator (crypto.getRandomValues). Every possible order is exactly as likely as any other, so the people at the top of your list don't end up clustered on one team.
- Share your screen or project it so everyone can watch you click the button. People are far less likely to complain about the result.
- Agree in advance to use the first result. If you keep reshuffling until you like the lineup, the draw isn't random anymore.
- For sports where skill levels vary a lot, put players of similar ability into separate groups, run the generator on each group and then combine the teams. This gives you fairly balanced sides.
Ways to use it in class, at work and in clubs
- Classroom groups: Paste your class roster and set 4 people per team to create groups for projects or activities in seconds.
- Workshops, training days and team building: Mix people from different departments at random, and use the leader option to pick a facilitator for each table.
- Pickup soccer, basketball or five-a-side: Set 2 teams to split everyone into two sides, such as shirts and skins or bibs and no bibs.
- Study groups, clubs and meetups: Reshuffle every week so people get to work with someone new each time.
If you need to decide an order instead of making teams, try the pinball picker or the ladder game.
Tips for pasting your list
- Columns copied from Excel or Google Sheets paste in as one name per line, which is exactly the format the tool needs.
- Names can also be separated by commas, for example
Alex, Sam, Jordan. - The note under the box shows how many participants were counted and how many teams you'll get, so you can check the list before you split it.